Process, Reality, and the Power of Symbols

Addressing the question of whether, and if so how, philosophy can come to the assistance of a culture mired in bad sense, this book begins with a critique of the reductionistic approach to thinking that is promoted by modern science. It moves toward a novel view of reason and reality construed as a 'reality of symbols'. Maintaining that various kinds of symbolism always mediate between sentient beings and reality, the author argues that the general naturalistic aim to reconcile ordinary experience with the most important findings of modern science requires an artful reason informed by an adequate metaphysical imaginary (a guiding metaphorics). Since adequacy ultimately depends on the quality of unstable insights and intuitions, reason can hope only partially to illuminate the perennial question of why certain symbolisms can at certain times and places create bridges between 'the rational and the real'.